“Jimmy! Why are you freaking out? She’s just an orphan no one’s even going to claim her body if she dies. What are you so worried about?”
“Didn’t we all agree? We were going to destroy her.”
I suddenly clenched the blanket tightly in my fists.
Bang!
A loud crash rang out—Jimmy had slammed the table hard, making the water glass on my nightstand tremble.
“Damn, Jimmy, don’t tell me you actually caught feelings for her?” one guy scoffed. “She’s just some broke chick. She’s fun to mess with, but catching feelings? That ruins the whole game.”
The room fell deathly silent, so quiet that even the sound of dripping liquid could be heard with startling clarity.
Jimmy’s voice came out cold as ice. “I just don’t want a dead body in our hands.” He paused, then added darkly, “If we’re doing this, we do it big.”
Someone clapped him on the shoulder. “Alright, alright. Everything’s in place. Let’s make sure she learns her lesson.”
When I woke up again, two nurses were speaking in hushed voices by the bedside.
“What do we do? She’s lost too much blood! I remember she used to donate here regularly shouldn’t she get priority access?” one nurse frantically flipped through the records. “That’s strange… the system says she donated 1200cc over the past six months, but it’s all recorded under Gina Higgins’ name…”
“Stop checking,” the older nurse quickly grabbed her hand, her voice barely above a whisper. “Mr. Olson gave direct orders that her blood donations were to be registered under Ms. Higgins.”
My fingers trembled beneath the blanket.
So that’s it. Every drop of blood I gave, every sacrifice I made, had been turned into one of Gina’s “good deeds.” Jimmy… do you really love her that much?
I suddenly remembered that rainy night half a year ago Jimmy curled up on my old couch, burning with fever, his face as pale as paper.
“I’m going to donate some blood,” I said without hesitation, rolling up my sleeve. “I heard blood donors get priority access and it can reduce the medical fees too.”
Jimmy, pale and weak, grabbed my hand, his eyes flickering with an emotion I couldn’t quite understand. “Nessie…”
Looking back now, it’s almost laughable how utterly pathetic I was.
I even sold the first and only piece of expensive jewelry I ever owned, the last gift my mother left me just to buy him nutritional supplements to help him recover. And he crushed my love beneath his feet, without a second thought.